2015 Annual Meeting Presentations

This presentation will focus on innovative approaches to documenting and archiving existing and emerging scientific technologies through video oral histories available on the World Wide Web. In 2014, the multidisciplinary Genetic Engineering and Society Center (GES) established "The History Project." This initiative was conceived to engage and challenge scientists, historians, public policy experts and archivists to actively collaborate, archive and preserve the history of agricultural genetic engineering and biotechnology in a "real time" environment using digital video interviews. The interviews are conducted with leading pioneers, practitioners and those with alternative opinions concerning the impact of agricultural biotechnology on society. "The History Project" builds on a similar video project: the NCSU Libraries' "Computer Simulation Archive" which was established in 2003 with the support of pioneers in the field and associated professional institutes and conferences.

Large collections often present a challenge for researchers and patrons wishing to locate disparate items that are related in ways not revealed through standard archival discovery methods, or that are too nuanced for any single archivist to consider. For physical software collections this is even more difficult, due to the need to execute software to understand its use and visual appearance. In a joint collaboration between Stanford University Library’s Department of Special Collections and UC Santa Cruz’s Center for Games and Playable Media, we present GameNet, a tool for exploring the implicit relationships between computer and video game software items in Stanford’s Cabrinety Collection on the History of Microcomputing.

Work on this project is being done by the following people at UC Santa Cruz:

For the past two semesters, an English composition class has used medical instruments from UNC’s Health Sciences Library to complete a material culture blog post assignment. Each student selected one instrument from the Health Sciences Library’s collection, and then did research about the instrument to provide historical context. Outstanding papers were eligible to be posted on the library’s website. A close working relationship between the Special Collections Librarian and the English instructor has allowed this assignment to evolve in order to enhance the undergraduate student experience on the health affairs side of campus.